Derek And The Dominos

Here’s a quick and effective way of gauging the influence of Derek and the Dominos, relative to the duration of time that they actually spent together as a band. Grab a recent Eric Clapton setlist - let’s say, for the sake of argument, from last year’s fiftieth anniversary tour, which actually was a pretty mellow affair, with plenty of acoustic tracks - and observe how many Dominos tracks made it on there; a fair few, each time. Then realise that they formed in 1970 and split in 1971. They produced just one album. But, like Never Mind the Bollocks years later, it was a stone cold classic - and that’s all that mattered. Aside from the kind-of title track, which is as near as you can get to a signature song when you’ve got a back catalogue as illustrious as Clapton’s, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs also contains bona fide gems like ‘Bell Bottom Blues’ ‘Nobody Knows When You’re Down and Out’ and ‘Tell the Truth’. After completing one U.S. tour that was so addled with drugs that Keith Richards probably would’ve given it a miss - “cocaine and heroin, that’s all, and Johnnie Walker” said Bobby Whitlock later - the band dissolved whilst trying to make a second album, with Clapton in particular struggling hugely with substance abuse problems exacerbated by the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman. Clapton continue to perform their big hitters, though, even though he’s winding down his own tour schedule; either one of his gigs, or their live album, In Concert, are your best bets at this point.